The Third Generation Partnership Project Services and System Aspects Work Group 5 (3GPP SA5) calls the interface between Network Management System (the managing unit) and Network Element Management unit or Network Element (the managed unit) as North bound Interface (Itf-N) in 3G network management. The Itf-N is as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2; the managed unit shown in FIG. 1 is a Network Element Management unit, and the managed unit shown in FIG. 2 is a Network Element.
The Itf-N includes a series of Integration Reference Point (IRP). Any management information on the Itf-N is modeled to be IRP, i.e. the IRP is a set of network management information model depicting the management function and the management data. Information depicting the management function is represented by function IRP, and function IRP includes a set of management operations.
The 3GPP SA5 depicts the IRP using a three-level protocol. Level 1 describes the IRP requirement; Level 2 describes the IRP abstract object model, i.e. Information Service (IS); Level 3 describes the IRP solution for implementing protocol, for example, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture/Interface Definition Language (CORBA/IDL) solution, the Common Management Information Protocol/Common Management Information Service (CMIP/CMISE) solution, and the Web Services Description Language/Simple Object Access Protocol (WSDL/SOAP) solution (SOAP is just a symbol and not limited by the definition of the “Simple Object Access Protocol” in the SOAP 1.2 and its upgraded version). All the solutions provided by Level 3 are based on the existing Level 1 description and Level 2 description.
In the existing art, Level 2 (IS level) of IRP defines the Information Service (IS) level inheritance between the inheriting IRP and the base IRP, and the IS level inheritance indicates that the inheriting object has all the characteristics of the inherited object. For example, referring to FIG. 3 which illustrates the IS level inheritance, the IRP directed by the arrowheads is an abstract function IRP (ManagedGenericIRP) functioning as the base IRP; and the abstract function IRP defines a set of management operations of network management system; all the instantiable function IRPs are the inheriting IRPs which inherit the ManagedGenericIRP. After the IS level inheritance between an inheriting IRP and a base IRP is established, the inheriting IRP can perform the base management operations defined by the base IRP. At the same time, the inheriting IRP may also define specific management operations of the inheriting IRP as required.
The base management operations are a set of management operations inherited from the base IRP by the inheriting IRP in the IS level inheritance. The inheriting IRP may inherit different base IRPs which have different management operations, so the base management operations inherited by the inheriting IRP may be different. Different base IRPs may be defined in such network management systems as 3GPP, WIMAX and NGN as required, which will not be detailed here.
The inheriting IRP defined by the 3GPP SA5 includes: BasicCMIRP, BulkCMIRP, NotificationIRP, TestManagementIRP, Performance Management IRP (PMIRP), Entry Point IRP (EPIRP), Communication Surveillance IRP (CSIRP), AlarmIRP, NotificationLogIRP, File Transfer IRP (FTIRP) and Subscription Management IRP (SuMIRP) etc.
The inheriting IRP is not limited to the above enumerative types, and all the function IRPs defined by such network management systems as 3GPP, WIMAX and NGN belong to the inheriting IRP.
The WSDL/SOAP solution defined by the 3GPP SA5 currently will become a standard of network management. IRPManager and IRPAgent use SOAP v1.1 and WSDL v1.1 as the communication protocols in WSDL/SOAP solution. Services implemented by WSDL/SOAP solution are also referred to as Web services because the WSDL/SOAP solution is applied to the Web.
The WSDL v1.1 protocol provides no method for implementing the IS level inheritance defined by the 3GPP IS level description in the WSDL/SOAP solution, so how to establish the IS level inheritance between the inheriting IRP and the base IRP using the WSDL v1.1 protocol has become a pressing issue.
One existing solution includes: establishing the IS level inheritance between the inheriting IRP and the ManagedGenericIRP using the import mechanism defined by the WSDL protocol when a WSDL file is defined. Referring to FIG. 4, this solution is as follows.
Block 401: Define a WSDL file for ManagedGenericIRP. The WSDL file for ManagedGenericIRP includes Types, Message, portType, Binding and Service. The Types and Message are used for defining management data and message. The portType, Binding and Service are used for defining management operations, ports and services. The management operations of ManagedGenericIRP include: getIRPVersion, getOperationProfile and getNotificationProfile. In a WSDL file, ManagedGenericIRP is called GenericIRP for short.
Block 402: Define a WSDL file for an inheriting IRP. The WSDL file for the inheriting IRP includes Types, Message, portType, Binding and Service. For different inheriting IRPs, the management operations, ports and services defined via portType, Binding and Service may be different. To distinguish from the base management operations defined in ManagedGenericIRP, the management operations defined in the inheriting IRP are referred to as the specific management operations.
For example, when the inheriting IRP is BasicCMIRP, the specific management operations defined via portType, Binding and Service include: getMOAttributes, getContainment, cancelOperation, createMO, deleteMO and setMOAttributes.
Block 403: Establish an IS level inheritance between the inheriting IRP and the base IRP by importing the WSDL file for ManagedGenericIRP into the WSDL file for the inheriting IRP using an import mechanism.
After the IS level inheritance is established using the import mechanism, the management operations (Operations) included in the WSDL file for BasicCMIRP are as shown in FIG. 5. The getMOAttributes, getContainment, cancelOperation, createMO, deleteMO and setMOAttributes are the specific management operations bound to the BasicCMIRP service; while the getIRPVersion, getOperationProfile and getNotificationProfile are the base management operations bound to the GenericIRP service.
A managing unit sends a request to a managed unit to instruct the managed unit to implement a base management operation of the inheriting IRP based on the established IS level inheritance. The processing procedure is as follows.
First, the managing unit employs a BasicCMIRP module to generate a base management operation request for BasicCMIRP, and sends the base management operation request to a SOAP interface module of the managing unit.
Second, the SOAP interface module of the managing unit finds the WSDL file for the inheriting IRP according to the inheriting IRP corresponding to the base management operation request. Because the WSDL file for the inheriting IRP records two services corresponding to two ports, i.e. the service of the BasicCMIRP port and the service of port imported from the WSDL file for ManagedGenericIRP, the SOAP interface module of managing unit may not know how to select the right service to serialize the base management operation request of BasicCMIRP.
If the ManagedGenericIRP service is selected, the SOAP interface module will serialize the base management operation request into a SOAP format message of ManagedGenericIRP module, and send the SOAP format message of ManagedGenericIRP module over a Web network.
If the service of the inheriting IRP port is selected, the SOAP interface module will serialize the base management operation request into a SOAP format message of BasicCMIRP module, and send the SOAP format message of BasicCMIRP module over a Web network.
If the base management operation request is serialized into the SOAP format message of ManagedGenericIRP module, the SOAP port of managed unit will try to send the base management operation request to the address of ManagedGenericIRP service for processing in the subsequent procedure. Because ManagedGenericIRP is an abstract function and there is no address of ManagedGenericIRP service, the execution of the base management operation will fail.
If the base management operation request is serialized into the SOAP format message of BasicCMIRP module, the managed unit will send the base management operation request to the address of BasicCMIRP service for processing in the subsequent procedure. The address of BasicCMIRP service is directed to the BasicCMIRP module. Because BasicCMIRP includes no base management operation, the base management operation can not be executed.
That is to say, the SOAP format message sent by the Web network can not be un-serialized into the base management operation of managed unit that can be correctly executed based on the WSDL file for BasicCMIRP.
The above procedure may be described in detail by taking the BasicCMIRP as an example. Suppose that the request sent by the managing unit is a request for executing the getIRPVersion operation for the BasicCMIRP.
After the WLDL file for BasicCMIRP is defined according to the method in accordance with FIG. 4, if the request is for serializing the getIRPVersion operation into a SOAP format message of ManagedGenericIRP module according to the WSDL file, upon receiving the request, the managed unit will search the location of the ManagedGenericIRP service to execute the getIRPVersions operation. Because the ManagedGenericIRP is an abstract function and it is impossible to find the corresponding ManagedGenericIRP module, the execution of getIRPVersions operation will fail.
If the request is for serializing the getIRPVersion operation into a SOAP format message of BasicCMIRP according to the WSDL file defined in accordance with FIG. 4, upon receiving the request, the managed unit will find the location of the BasicCMIRP module and request the BasicCMIRP module to execute the getIRPVersions operation. Because the BasicCMIRP module includes no getIRPVersions operation, the request can not be executed.
The inventor of the present invention found in the inventing process that the IS level inheritance between the inheriting IRP and the base IRP can not be established correctly by the conventional method for implementing the IS level inheritance. And the inheriting IRP can not execute the base management operation defined by the base IRP, so the IS level description requirement of IRP can not be satisfied.